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05 November 2013

How to make travel on the Underground {London Tube} fun for kids

Travelling on the Underground train system in London (or the Tube as it is more affectionately known) can be quite a daunting prospect when doing it with kids.

There's a lot to remember - stand on the right on the escalators, mind the gap between the train and the platform, stand clear of the doors, and hold on to a rail if you're standing when the train is moving.

If you've ever travelled on the Tube, you'll know that it's generally a bit of a somber experience, no-one really talks, most people lose themselves in a daily newspaper, playing on their phones, reading, listening to music on their headphones or snoozing. And if you think that anyone will give up their precious seats even when there's clearly 2 kids standing right in front of them - think again. Well that is a bit harsh because we did have the odd kind person but for the most part everyone is pretty well out for themselves.

Our two were pretty intrigued by the whole experience finding it quite the adventure, always following along with the route we were taking and counting the number of stops we were going each time.

So I think having us rowdy lot on the train was probably quite the novelty for most other commuters. And we passed the time with a new game: Renaming the Tube Stops. It was actually Mylo that came up with the idea because as he listened to the announcement as to what stop was coming up next he was clearly hearing things quite different to the rest of us.

You can see from the names crossed out in red that we had a go at renaming some of the stops we passed through - often with hilarious results. So without further ado here are new and improved tube station names:

We ended up doing quite a few trips on the tube in the three days we were there so it really helped pass the time both to count the number of stops and to have some fun laughing at the funny names we made up. I'm sure I caught a few other people having a secret smile at our antics on the Tube too - hopefully we managed to brighten up their day as well!